Holiday Music

We have a program called Holiday Music featuring the Piccola Carolers. I've actually been booking performances for carolers off and on since 1975--- more recently through Opera Piccola. What does this program have to do with our educational arts company, which provides access to the arts for under served audiences? A capella music in four part harmony sung by beautiful voices isn't heard that often outside church or temple; you could say we're making this kind of music accessible to people who are literally on the street. But beyond that, I find other common denominators with our mission, like building community, expressing voices of diverse cultures, etc. The longer I teach and work in the arts field, the more interested I become in ways the arts can help in people's lives, and how the arts intersect with so many other fields (philosophy, neurology, health/healing, literacy, youth development, career readiness).

I had the privilege of singing soprano in some of our quartets this season, as well as conducting my high school chorus/voice class in some holiday music performances. Music, like other performing arts, often thrusts me into a present tense euphoria that is better than any artificial high invented. Weighed down by problems and debt, I nevertheless experienced an inexpressible feeling of joy, and entered into a time "zone" that had nothing to do with the clock.

I'm reminded of the popular video that was going around the Internet about the brain scientist who experienced a stroke. Her description of the absence of left brain linear thinking, and the boundary-less state of perceiving the world through her right brain sounded similar to some of my experiences with music. We sang for a group of elderly Alzheimer's patients who appeared almost autistic in their lack of ability to speak or respond "normally." My high school chorus could not be more diverse. Yet the music seemed to float us into a mysterious mist of what? Vibrations? Sound waves? A softening happened, a unity of hearts that can't really be put into a pie chart for our upcoming grant proposals in January. In the season of gift giving, this is a gift I wish I could give to everyone.